Music

My piece on the reunion of Tim Berne’s Bloodcount, in the current Philadelphia Weekly.

Yes We Can. (Herbie says so.) Obama on Super Tuesday.

My monthly list of recommended CDs, as published in All About Jazz-New York, February 2008: Ron Blake, Shayari (Mack Avenue) Bill Dixon with Exploding Star Orchestra (Thrill Jockey) Hans Glawischnig, Panorama (Sunnyside) Tony Malaby/William Parker/Nasheet Waits, Tamarindo (Clean Feed) Matana Roberts, The Chicago Project (Central Control) Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Avatar (Blue Note)

My piece on improvisation, for the annual Philadelphia Music Project magazine, is now online. (The print mag came out sometime close to Christmas ’07.) Here for the full table of contents.

It’s not everywhere you can go hear the Pierre Boulez masterpiece Le Marteau sans Maître for free, so I seized the chance and headed to the Swarthmore campus last night for an on-the-edge performance by Orchestra 2001 under the direction of James Freeman. The reading was poised and elegant, but there were moments in the faster passages when the ensemble

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My review of the Bill Frisell/Jamaaladeen Tacuma double bill at Rutgers-Camden, in today’s Inquirer.

In case you missed the last one…Larry Koonse, What’s in the Box? (Jazz Compass): Tremendous yet underrated guitarist from Los Angeles, playing the music of Jimmy Wyble. David Rogers Sextet, The World Is Not Your Home (Jumbie): African-inspired jazz from a little-known saxophone modernist, featuring monsters Craig Taborn and Gerald Cleaver, plus the noted classical composer Derek Bermel, my old

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Just back from Toronto and an enjoyable conference of the IAJE (International Association for Jazz Education). Friday’s panel on blogging was moderated by Neil Tesser, who engaged me, Darcy James Argue, David Ryshpan and Carl Wilson in an hour of fun and productive discussion. Lots of schmoozing later with the good folks of the Jazz Journalists Association — one of

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